Opal Creek

I'd wanted to do Opal Creek for years. In fact, it's probably safe to say that it was the number one run I wanted to do after moving back west. I finally got on it today, at optimal flows and on a beautiful KAVU day in the mid-70s.

The crew was me, Darryl from Salem, and Russ from Tennessee. I didn't take a lot of pictures because we were booking down at a good clip, enjoying the fun ledges and boulder gardens.

What you get when the headwaters of a river include some of the largest stands of old-growth trees left in the state: turquoise water and a pristine river canyon

Ancient old growth logs wedged in the canyon below Big Fluffy, as viewed during the SKETCHY seal launch portage

Looking back upstream after the seal launch, which involved landing in the outflow of the waterfall in control so as to avoid the two logs that you can see in the river

Thors hammer and the largest and last rapid of the day, thors playroom. This rapid was FUN!!!! Only about half the rapid can be seen in this picture